Arianna O'Dell

I’m every marketers dream.

I am a heavy user of social media. I fall in the 20-30 year old age bracket. I talk non-stop. I have disposable income to buy your product.

I hate the word, “influencer” so let’s just call me someone who can’t keep my mouth shut.

Where do I talk?

I talk online.
I talk on my blog.
I talk on Twitter.
I talk on Pinterest.
I talk on Facebook.
I talk on Tumblr.
I talk on LinkedIn.
I talk on Pinterest.
I talk on every social network you could possibly think of.

I talk in person.
I talk at work.
I talk at bars.
I talk at parties.
I talk in coffee shops

You get the point – I talk all day, everyday.

What brands have I talked about recently?

The Good :
Crest – A while ago they sent me a free Crest white strips, toothpaste, and mouth wash.

Nordstroms – They recently had an awesome event that they invited me to.

Rafflecopter – This tool was amazing and I felt compelled to tell other marketing people about it.

Odesk.com – This website is an amazing outsourcing tool.

The Bad :

Clearwire – I hate this company with a passion for their poor customer service.

HP – I also hate this company for their poor customer service.

So let’s get to the point of this post. How do you market to people like me? – The people who WILL spread your message, good or bad.

Give me something for free :

As cliche as this sounds, it works. Let’s jump back to Crest for a minute. A few months ago, after some Twitter chitchat the company sent me a box of Crest White Strips and Whitening Tooth Paste. I jokingly asked them on Twitter to send me some and they did. This little “act of kindness” had a huge return on investment for them. Why? Because I think I’ve told 100 people about this. And now, a million more people will know this after I publish this post. (Okay fine, maybe 200 Let’s see, so a box of Crest Strips probably costs the company $20? For 300 solid and memorable impressions – I’d call that a deal!

That said, you can’t buy my love – I will never post anything on my social channels because someone paid me to do it – only if I truly like the product/service and think my friends could benefit from it.

Save me time and or money :

If you compliment me on my sweater, I will reply with “Thanks, I got it at _________ for only $20!” I love telling other people about where they can get good deals. I’m a firm believer that everyone should have more free time and more money – I LOVE telling people about this. If you have a product that will save time or money  – I’ll talk about it.

Give me something that will make me and my friends laugh :

My feeds are full of the following – things I like and things I think other people would like. I will always post a video or article if I think other people will think it’s funny too. Whether it’s an auto-tuned Bed Intruder video or an puppy with a hat on, if your company can make me laugh – chances are you have a shot at my wallet.

Be innovative and push boundaries :

There are too many companies that are afraid to run any kind of marketing campaign that might spark controversy. I talk about things out of the ordinary. I talk about cool things I’ve seen. There is no way I’m going to tell my friends “Hey, did you know Coke is on Facebook?” – no one cares. What I will tell my friends is “Oh hey, I had ______ experience with this company. They are so _______ !

Want some more marketing ideas? Let’s get coffee and I’ll tell you anything you need to know about marketing to me.

Like I said, I love talking ;D

Recently, I have been so lucky to know so many incredibly helpful people. This is just one of the examples of how awesome people have been to me lately. Over the last few months,  I have had a lot of help on projects from editing application essays to answering all my programming questions.

I just wanted to say THANK YOU.

To everyone who has helped me recently: You rock.

It is sincerely appreciated. Any help you need, I got you covered!

I often times find myself explaining the different ways a person can engage with others on Twitter. Professional networking, making friends, learning about different topics and so forth. A common question that always comes up during Arianna’s little Introduction to Twitter explanation is always :

“Hey, so should I follow back everyone that follows me?”

Read the rest of this entry →

You can’t believe what you read online – at all.

This post was co-written with Forrest Kobayashi .

Read it HERE!

…because you can’t truly know someone from the Internet. While Twitter might be great for meeting new people, it should not be used a sole platform to build and maintain friendships. With every tweet it is up to the reader to decide what was trying to be communicated. I’d be willing to bet that half the time, most people are reading what you said in the wrong tone and not taking your personality into consideration. Often times, this may lead them to take the statement completely out of context. When I browse my Twitter feed, I often find myself reading in a monotone with very little enthusiasm.

You are reading this post with the tone you think I am writing in. By mere text you will never know how I intended this post to sound or the tone in which I am writing. This being said, I probably make a few people angry from time to time with the statements I post on both Twitter and Facebook. With only 140 characters, the brevity of a post can make it completely useless or misleading without knowing the context behind it. As great as Twitter may be, I think it’s strongly detracting from the way in which we learn and communicate with each other. By limiting thoughts to a sentence it halts the creative process to some extent. With only 140 characters it is very hard portray a complete thought, as much more information is usually needed to fully comprehend a subject. There is a lot of value to engaging with others on Twitter and I have met so many great people from doing this. Believe it or not, every one of these great people has all turned out to be even better in real life conversations.

I think Twitter is a wonderful medium of communication and a starting point to meet new people, but I whole heartedly hate when people just want to be Internet friends. I’ve had Internet “friends” in the past who I’ve talked to for years online, but when it came time to being “real life friends” they had no interest. I do not understand why someone would only want to IM, Twitter, and Facebook but never actually hang out in person. To this day, that still puzzles me.

While yes, the Internet is great, it is no replacement for real life.

I am personally offended when someone only wants to be my Internet friend. This is comparable to saying you only read what I have to say for entertainment value. There is more to me than 140 characters.

The past month or so I’ve been out of the loop on networking events and other things happening in the Seattle tech and social media scene. I’ve been busy with FlyBy as well as going back to school. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything. I’ve missed seeing a lot of my friends and I am not as up to date on everything going on. Over the course of the summer I was going to event after event every week. While doing this I got to meet many great people and got to learn so much about business, social media, and entrepreneurship.

In addition to making a lot of great friends, I learned a lot about successful networking. During this learning process I also learned what not to do. For example:

Handing me your business card as you’re shaking my hand.

–Hmm why would I want your email and phone number before I even know who you are?

Selling me your product before I even know anything about you.

–That’s a slap in the face that basically says “you’re only as good as how much money you can give me”.

Following up with me only for a sales pitch that you disguise as “getting to know you better”

–Sorry, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see through that act.

I think social media has revolutionized networking, making it really easy to connect with someone on a personal level after meeting them. After attending a lot of events I found that a majority of the people I had met were on Twitter. Following them and reading their updates has allowed me to learn more about them as a person instead of a business contact. I have even been lucky enough to meet some great people through Twitter only to learn they are ten times cooler in person after meeting them in person.

I think Twitter and Facebook are both great tools to keep in touch with friends and can even aid in building relationships. This being said, the Internet is only a supplement to a real life relationship, not a replacement. There is nothing that irritates me more than people who only want to be friends on the Internet. I’ve had a few “friends” in the past that only liked to chat online but never in person. If you just read someones status updates and tweets you’re not truly getting to know them – you’re merely using them for entertainment value to some extent. Real life is ALWAYS better than online. (and if you disagree I’d love to know why)

I would be more than happy to help someone I had a brief chat with, but I would bend over backwards for any friend. As far as I’m concerned, only “building your network” is a horrible approach in the business world. Building your circle of friends is much better. 

If we are just “contacts” let’s fix this. :-]